Hypocrisy of Sydney Sharpe

Calgary Herald
letters@theherald.southam.ca

Dear Editor:

If hypocrisy is the basic criterion to establish one's credentials as
a pimp for the Holocaust Industry, then the March 3, 2000, article in
the Calgary Herald titled "war criminals don't get a pass" by Sydney
Sharpe passes with flying colors. First, she concedes that there is no
evidence that Helmut Oberlander committed any war crimes, then she
proceeds to paint him as the worst possible monster imaginable.

Rather than try to counter the hysterical meanderings of Ms. Sharpe, I
would like to direct the attention of your readers to the rather
similar case of Vladimir Katriuk, the details of which are archived at
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/pakistan/83/katriuk/katriukverdict.html

It is amazing that both Judges Marc Nadon and Andrew MacKay
hypothesize that Mr. Katriuk and Mr. Oberlander must have been
interviewed by a security officer and provided false information, even
though there is no evidence of this actually having occurred. Indeed,
the testimony of thousands of immigrants from that time contradict
this assertion.

The companion article by Nigel Hannaford is more benign towards Mr.
Oberlander but still misses the point. Self-preservation rather than
hero-worship is the more likely motive for Mr. Oberlander agreeing to
act as an interpreter for the Germans. To refuse such a "request" by a
gun-toting German would take unusual courage bordering on idiocy.

The irony in the situation is that by 1954, when Mr. Oberlander
arrived in Canada, even members of the National Socialist party were
being allowed to immigrate to Canada. Obviously, Mr. Oberlander's
greatest crime was to have been born in Ukraine.